Galea Salomone: divorce does not affect religious marriage

Zwieg Bla Divorzju figurehead Arthur Galea Salomone was at pains to explain why statistics he was presenting as “evidence of a campaign of lies” from the Iva movement, were either incorrect or not part of the complete picture.

MaltaToday pointed out that Galea Salomone’s numbers were incomplete: he said there was an average of 11 foreign divorces every year in the past 11 years from just Maltese spouses; but the average is 26 when taking the entire 785 foreign divorces since 1980. He also said it wasn’t true that there were more civil marriages in 2011 than Catholic marriages – but the numbers from 1991 show a 25% drop in Catholic marriages (from 2,312 down to 1,640 in 2010) and a massive 233% increase in civil marriages from 237 to 777.

“We don’t think of civil marriage as a second-class marriage,” Galea Salomone said when asked of the decline in religious marriages.”Divorce does not affect religious marriage.”

Galea Salomone also claimed cohabitation increased four-fold after the introduction of divorce in Ireland in 1997, but omitted to mention that the same research he was citing – the Iona Institute report – also says that marital breakdown had more than doubled from 40,000 to 90,000 between 1986 and 1996.

Today Galea Salomone also took issue with a statement by Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando that voters had been subjected to “spiritual terrorism”, a reference he made to statements by Church leaders.

“It wasn’t us who used the Church in this campaign… Iva tried using the comments given by Mgr Charles Vella,” Galea Salomone said, referring to the Iva television spot featuring the Milan-based priest’s statement that “divorce does not scare him”.

The Constitutional Court upheld the Broadcasting Authority’s decision to remove the television spot.

“Mgr Vella publicly didn’t give his consent to being used in the referendum advert… Iva can appeal the sentence if they want to,” Galea Salomone said.

Mgr Vella’s comments were also made in interviews to the Times of Malta and MaltaToday.

“The yes movement is painting a divorce for no reason as responsible, when this will allow spouses to just walk out of the marriage,” Galea Salomone said.

The proposed divorce bill actually states that spouses must first file for separation, where they can establish fault on part of the spouse, before filing for divorce.

“Divorce can be imposed on a party that does not want divorce because they want to keep the marriage intact,” Galea Salomone said. He omitted to mention that separations and annulments can be started in court without the other spouse’s agreement.

Galea Salomone also claimed he was unaware of any financial donations from the Nationalist Party and the Catholic Church, saying donations had come from “several congregations” and by SMS donations.

He made reference to a survey conducted in March by the no movement that says 71% of respondents feel divorce will be negative for children, and that health minister Joe Cassar and Labour Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca had “cited various studies in parliament”.

He also reiterated that spouses on an average €1,000 monthly salary would be unable to maintain their first and new families if they divorce. “So divorce is a remedy for rich people, or it will create a new poverty, or the financial burden will be carried by social services. Certainly the maintenance cannot be guaranteed.”